Palladium Books® Weekly Update – March 16, 2017

By Kevin Siembieda

Despite snow, high winds, icy temperatures, and people out of the office due to power outages and other issues, this has felt like a good week. Productive and positive. We are getting a lot of small things done and out of the way and actively moving several projects forward, from ads and prep for AdeptiCon to positive movement on RRT and several books.

BIG Rifts® Sale Event Part Two – March 16-22, 2017 – One week only

We continue to think of this as our “What happened to an early spring?!” sale. We are missing those spring-like days from a couple weeks ago, so this week we thought we would heat things up with a sale on Rifts® Sourcebooks AND Rifts® Miniatures! All available at a 30% discount from now through next Wednesday. We want to keep the excitement about Rifts® going, so here is another short sale. A good time to stock up. (Next week we show our enthusiasm for Robotech® RPG/Robotech® RPG Tactics™, in conjunction with our presence at AdeptiCon.)

UPDATE: Rifts® for Savage Worlds®

The core RPG titles for Rifts® Savage Worlds® are now available in stores. I also have it on good authority that Sean Patrick Fannon is working on the next several titles for this game line. Support is coming.

UPDATE: Rifts® Board Game from Rogue Heroes™ – Kickstarter to launch end of April and run through May, 2017

We have been approving art and cards and rule elements as Carmen Bellaire fine tunes his Rifts® Board Game for an end of April-May Kickstarter. I can tell you a few things for certain: 1. Carmen and his team are putting their hearts and souls into the board game and it is looking great. 2. Carmen sounds stronger and better every day. 3. The Rifts Board Game is going to be awesome. Not just for the gorgeous, detailed miniatures, each one oozing with character and attitude, but because the game really captures the look, power and spirit of Rifts® as a miniature tabletop game. I cannot reveal too much about the rules and other details before the April/May Kickstarter launch, but I am impressed. More than what I was expecting.

Carmen is still shooting for that late April into May timeframe for the Rifts® Board Game Kickstarter. Our warmest wishes that everything continues to go well for Carmen on the game and hoping that two plus years of development and hard work on the game and the launch of his Rogue Heroes Publishing company pays off in the weeks ahead. The Rifts® Board Game is produced under license from Palladium Books Inc.

UPDATE: The Rifter® #77 – available now

Getting good feedback on The Rifter® #77, available now. Folks were pleased to see the conclusion of the epic adventure, I am Legion, and I’ve gotten some excited responses to my updating of Doctor Feral for HU2 and the adventure setting presented. Actually, folks seem to enjoy the entire issue, including the material for Palladium Fantasy® (a new city-state to explore in the Old Kingdom) and Rifts® (a Techno-Wizard city that will surprise you, and where trouble is brewing). A third of the issue is “official” source material; all of it is fun.

This is hot on the heels of The Rifter® #76, with more than half of it being “official” source material, including The Primorda, “Official” for Rifts® and Palladium Fantasy®, and the Splicers® I am Legion adventure. I thought it was cool to see material for Heroes Unlimited™ and Ninjas and Superspies™, and other good stuff, too.

UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Wave Two

Robotech®/Robotech® RPG Tactics™ dominates most of our conversations these days as we are busy working on all aspects of the relaunch.

UPDATE: AdeptiCon – March 23-26 – Chicagoland area

As noted in the prior Update, Palladium Books will be at AdeptiCon selling and demoing Robotech® RPG Tactics™. There will also be a selection of Robotech® RPG books and select Rifts® and other products available.

Also stop by the Palladium Books booth at AdeptiCon to get the latest news and a special promotion for the Rifts® Board Game. Carmen Bellaire cannot make AdeptiCon this year as he had intended, so we will be representing both Robotech® RPG Tactics™ and the Rifts® Board Game coming from Rogue Heroes Publishing. (Anything to help our friend, Carmen and his dedicated crew of creators.) Thank you.

UPDATE: Rifts® Secrets of the Atlanteans™ – March release

UPDATE: Rifts® Sovietski™ – Spring or Summer Release

UPDATE: Garden of the Gods™ – a Palladium Fantasy RPG® Sourcebook – March or April release

Artwork for Garden of the Gods has been assigned. Other books in development for Palladium Fantasy®: Lopan™ Adventure Sourcebook, Lopanic Games™ Sourcebook and Land of the South Winds™, among other things.

UPDATE: Dead Reign® Sourcebook: In the Face of Death

Artist Nick Bradshaw continues to work on the interior art, while E.M. Gist works on giving us another dynamic cover.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Wave 2 Paper Game Pieces, and all RRT game cards,Rifts® Ultimate Edition and 160+ other PDF Palladium titles, RRT stuff, G.M. helper kits and free material are on DriveThruRPG.com right now! More Rifts®, Robotech® and other Palladium game titles, paper miniatures and fun are coming to PDF in the weeks and months ahead. Watch for them.

In addition to the titles listed above, The Minion War™ series of books, the Rifts® Coalition Wars®/Tolkeen series, Chaos Earth® Resurrection, all of the Dead Reign® (Zombie Apocalypse) titles, Splicers® RPG and most issues of The Rifter® are available NOW! So are first edition rules of the Heroes Unlimited™ RPG and sourcebooks, Palladium Fantasy RPG® and sourcebooks, The Mechanoids®, and much more, available on DriveThruRPG.com.

Alex and I have added and continue to add a lot of vintage Star Wars toys and a growing number of all kinds of collectibles – and we’ll be adding more Palladium Books original art and items to the store, so keep an eye out for them.

This includes one-of-a-kind original artwork, prints, Rifts® and Robotech® artwork by Kevin Long, me and others. There is also a range of limited editions, rare book titles and limited edition hardcovers, toys and more that are all being added to my ebay store over the next several weeks, so keep an eye out. Alex and I will keep adding items as our busy schedules allow, but we have a lot of fun collectibles available now and coming soon. Items include original art, out of print titles, redlined proofreader photocopies signed by me and the staff, signed manuscripts with editors’ corrections, some original art, hardcover books (including Rifts® Lemuria, Northern Gun™ One, Northern Gun™ Two, Megaverse® in Flames™, Beyond the Supernatural™ Gold, Rifts® Machinations of Doom™ Gold and Rifts® Ultimate Gold) and other items available. There are also hundreds of toys and action figures, all from my personal archives and collection. Take a look every weekend for new items added.

GEN CON – There is still time to get your game event in the program

To guarantee a dedicated gaming area and listing in the program book and online schedule, we need your descriptions and details over the next few weeks. Please start sending them in to NMI. Any Megaversal Ambassador can help you, but NMI is the primary Gen Con event coordinator. We had some awesome events the last few years, so let us, please, keep the trend going. Remember, G.M.s running Palladium events get a discount coupon for EACH game they run that they can redeem at the Palladium booth. We are looking for Game Masters to run any and all Palladium game settings: Rifts®, Robotech®, Robotech® RPG Tactics™, Palladium Fantasy®, Heroes Unlimited™, Splicers®, Nightbane®, Dead Reign®, Beyond the Supernatural™ and all the rest! We appreciate ALL of you, and love that you run games for us at Gen Con. Thank you.

Closing thoughts

As you can see, there are a lot of projects in the works. All good stuff, and a heck of a lot more. The atmosphere here is one of intense optimism and excitement. Spent a lot of time on AdeptiCon prep and promotions, now I intend to get back into finishing the writing on several of these projects. So that’s it for this week. Thank you. Keep those imaginations burning bright.

Rifts® World Books and Sourcebooks, including Rifts® New Navy, Rifts® Antarctica, and others.

And some big surprises coming this summer and fall

New! The Rifter® #77 – Now Shipping!

Adventure, madness, strange creatures and strange lands fill this issue of The Rifter®. This issue is a playground for heroes and a source of adventure, but beware the danger that lurks in the shadows.

Every issue of The Rifter® is an idea factory for players and Game Masters to generate new ideas and find new avenues of adventure. It provides useful, ready to go source material you can just drop into your ongoing games. A doorway to new possibilities and numerous Palladium role-playing worlds. And the many new characters, O.C.C.s, powers, magic, weapons, villains, monsters, adventures and ideas for one setting can be easily adapted to any Palladium setting.

Rifter® #77 Highlights:

Rifts® – City of Nowhere – an adventure setting by Brett Caron. Capitalism, magic and dark secrets build an enchanted city with a dark underbelly that may not hold.

Palladium Fantasy RPG® – the city of Khemennu adventure setting by Ian Herbert. A holy city dedicated to the Church of Light and Dark, and the resting place of the legendary Sun Disc. A place of intrigue, magic and adventure.

Splicers® – I am Legion, Part Six – by Charles Walton II, Chris Kluge and Lance Colley – “official” source material. This is it! The final battle against Legion! The Legion personality and her Black Shroud armor statted and described. Secrets and dangers revealed about the Factory Walker and more. Even in victory, the world may never be the same.

“Desperate times require desperate measures. War has nothing to do with morality or justice. It’s all about winning or dying. We cannot bind our hands with high ideals, even our own, or worry about the laws of renegade nations or the rights of alien people. We must fight fire with fire. And you are the match.” – Colonel Lyboc addressing a Disavowed team.

The Disavowed are so Top Secret that their existence is known only to a handful of the Coalition States’ most elite, top echelon, with Joseph Prosek II the mastermind behind the Disavowed operation, and Colonel Lyboc its shadowy face. Find out who these men and women are. How the Disavowed get away with using magic, traveling to other parts of Rifts Earth and even to other dimensions in pursuit of enemies and strategic information that cannot be had through conventional means. Learn about the secret parameters in which these hard-boiled warriors, secretly hand-picked by Joseph Prosek II, operate, why almost every mission is considered a suicide mission, and why they must forever be the Disavowed.

CS operatives so secret that even the top military and political leaders right up to Emperor Prosek know nothing about them. And if they did know, would they condone their activity or condemn it?

Are the Disavowed heroes or renegades? Assassins or soldiers? Madmen or super-patriots? Or a little of them all?

Unsung heroes who keep the CS safe, or thugs and pawns of a shadow agency within the Coalition government?

What role does the Vanguard play in this group?

How do they reward their D-Bee “teammates” when the mission is over?

What happens to the Disavowed when they have seen or learned too much? Adventure ideas galore and so much more.

NEW! The Rifter® #76 – Available now!

The Rifter® #76 is filled with strange creatures, adventure and fun across the Megaverse® and multiple world settings.

Every issue of The Rifter® is an idea factory for players and Game Masters to generate new ideas and find new avenues of adventure. It provides useful, ready to go source material you can just drop into your ongoing games. A doorway to new possibilities and numerous Palladium role-playing worlds. And the many new characters, O.C.C.s, powers, magic, weapons, villains, monsters, adventures and ideas for one setting can be easily adapted to any Palladium setting. Every issue has material for Rifts® and usually 2-3 other Palladium game lines. The focus of this issue is Rifts®, Splicers® and RPG advice. Don’t forget, unofficial material can be easily adapted for use in ANY Palladium game setting.

Rifter® #76 Highlights:

Rifts®, Phase World®, and Palladium Fantasy RPG® – Elemental Primordials™, by Greg Diaczyk and Kevin Siembieda – “official” source material. Elemental Primordials are something new in the Megaverse®. No one knows why they are appearing or whether that is good or bad. These new Elemental beings can be used as player characters or NPCs. Four Elemental Primordials and four riding animals from the Elemental Realms. Their very existence sparks potential storylines and adventure ideas. Get your first glimpse of them in The Rifter® #76.

Rifts® Pecos Badlands Town – by Brett Caron. Thinking about doing some adventuring in the Rifts American Southwest? Mosey on over to Gohjjunk.

Rifts® for Savage Worlds® Preview®. Get another look at what’s coming this winter.

Splicers® – I am Legion, Part Five, by Charles Walton II, Chris Kluge and Lance Colley – “official” source material. The adventure reaches a fever pitch as we near the conclusion. More secrets, danger and combat.

Heroes Unlimited™, Ninjas & Superspies, Nightbane® – Blood Diamonds by Thomas Morrison presents adventure source material with a war-torn setting, story and NPCs in Africa. But it could be just the beginning of a globe spanning campaign.

Rifts® CS Heroes of Humanity™ changes the landscape of Rifts North America and beyond, presents ways to upgrade and improve existing Men-At-Arms characters with Advanced Training, and includes new character classes, weapons, equipment, alliances and conflict to inspire epic new adventures.

Rifts® Heroes of Humanity™ outlines the battle for the soul of humanity. The Minion War™ has spilled onto Rifts Earth. At the epicenter of the invasion is North America. If either of the two rival demonic forces succeeds in conquering the continent, the rest of the world shall follow and Earth will be annexed to Hell. The demon hordes believe no one can stop them. The Coalition States has something to say about that.

For the first time in history, the Coalition States, Northern Gun, the Manistique Imperium, Lazlo, New Lazlo, Free Quebec, the Cyber-Knights, Lemurians, True Atlanteans, D-Bees, mages, mercs and many, many others stand together against a common enemy. Meanwhile, the Splugorth of Atlantis, Archie Three, the Republicans and the Vanguard engage in their own shadow war against the invading demon hordes, and each other.

Heroes of Humanity™ lets unprecedented types of characters gather in mixed groups that would otherwise be ideologically opposed. Together they fight side-by-side for the greater good.

Hell Followed™ – Now Shipping!

A Dead Reign® Sourcebook – Do more than survive

“This book begins to redefine the zombie genre. It broadens the field of possibilities and expands upon the modern zombie mythos. It is full of twists and surprises I had never imagined. – Alex Marciniszyn, Editor

In the wake of the Zombie Apocalypse, survivors find themselves trapped in a living hell. As everyone struggles to survive against the ravenous dead, some rise up to be heroes fighting for those in need and against all manner of evil – living and dead.

Be more than a survivor. Accept the new world and do something about it.

11 New types of zombies, including the Armored Brute, Dead Mound Giant, Seeker and more.

7 New Apocalyptic Character Classes.

Masked Lunatics – heroes or madmen?

Cults, good and bad, plus other weirdness and dangers.

21 Disasters to complicate survival. Each described with damage stats, penalties and consequences. The most comprehensive information of this type ever presented! Blizzard, Earthquake, Hurricane, Tornado, Toxic Spill, Wildfire, and more.

Government enclaves. Could the government or its military still exist? If so, where are they? What are they doing?

8 Government conspiracy theories. Each fuel for creating adventures and building different organizations.

Tables for creating government enclaves and their purpose.

Abandoned Emergency Relief Centers and the resources they may still have to offer survivors, if they can get to them. Random tables and ideas for adventure.

Take your zombie campaign to the next level!

Cover by E.M. Gist. Interior art by Nick Bradshaw.

Written by Taylor White and Kevin Siembieda. The biggest Dead Reign® sourcebook yet. Adaptable to other Palladium settings.

NEW! Rifts® Secrets of the Atlanteans™

True Atlanteans are descendants from Earth’s past. The survivors of the sinking of Atlantis (really a dimensional mishap) and travelers of the Megaverse, wielders of Tattoo Magic and other lost mystic arts. Most people regard them as heroes, but are they? The Sunaj Assassins are mythic villains feared by all, yet they too are True Atlanteans who serve dark forces.

For the first time, much of the story behind True Atlanteans and their secrets are revealed.

True Atlanteans revisited.

Optional Atlantean character creation tables including clan heritage and other factors.

Secrets of the stone pyramids, different types/purposes and powers.

Many new magic tattoos, magic spells, weapons and armor.

Atlantean hideouts and secret communities across the Megaverse.

The Sunaj Assassins, their secrets, history and plans for the future.

Atlantean Monster Hunter O.C.C., Atlantean Defender O.C.C. and much more. And this is just the tip of what this book contains.

NEW! Rifts® Poker Deck One (Color) – available now

For the first time ever, Rifts® is captured in a deck of playing cards. Each card a powerful image. Perfect for playing cards, collecting, gifts and use as an Action Deck for Pinnacle’s Rifts® Savage Worlds game line.

Gen Con gamers went wild over the two Rifts® Poker Decks and you will too. Both contain iconic Rifts® artwork and characters, and look gorgeous. The color and design of both poker decks makes the artwork pop and a joy to use. Available now.

Premium card stock.

Standard US Poker size deck of playing cards.

Rifts® specific symbols for each suit.

52 full color playing cards, plus 2 Jokers.

Diamonds are magic. Clubs are D-Bees. Hearts are heroes. Spades are the Coalition States.

The back of the cards is the artwork from the cover of Rifts® Ultimate Edition depicting a Ley Line Walker with an Alien Intelligence emerging from the Rift opening behind him, energy swirling. Art by Scott Johnson.

52 iconic images and characters by your favorite artists. This second deck of playing cards captures Rifts® in a different light. Each card features a different iconic, black and white illustration set in a color border of rippling magic energy from the Rifts. Illustrations are by a wide range of fan favorite artists. A fun and attractive item for playing cards, collecting, and other uses.

Premium card stock.

Standard US Poker size deck of playing cards.

Rifts® specific symbols for each suit.

Color border and suits.

52 playing cards featuring iconic illustrations, plus 2 Jokers.

Diamonds are monsters. Clubs are heroes. Hearts are robots and power armor. Spades are the Coalition Army.

Each card has a unique illustration of a famous Rifts® hero, monster, mech or agent of the Coalition. Artists include Kevin Long, Ramon K. Perez, Freddie Williams II, Michael Wilson, Jeffery Russell, Apollo Okamura, and others.

Customized, full color, Rifts® tuck box.

The back of the cards is the artwork from the cover of Rifts® Psyscape™ depicting a beautiful female psychic warrior, triumphant over a robotic enemy. Art by John Zeleznik.

Robotech®: The Masters Saga™ Sourcebook has been enlarged to the standard 8½ x 11 inch format and 160 pages. Artwork was given the deluxe treatment – large, clear, and detailed to go along with the wealth of information about the Second Robotech War, the Army of the Southern Cross, its combat forces, mecha, weapons, and vehicles. The same comprehensive treatment was given to the invading Robotech Masters.

Forget the corny drama, the emphasis of this sourcebook is on the Second Robotech War and the equipment on both sides. Making the Masters Saga a big mecha and equipment book that you will want in your collection. Did you know the Army of the Southern Cross used power armor and Battloids in addition to their famous mecha? You’ll find out all about it in this comprehensive 160 page sourcebook. Much of it described and statted out in an “official” capacity for the very first time in this sourcebook. Note: Only the size, size of artwork and layout has changed. The text and data are the same as the manga-sized edition, apart from eratta and minor additions.

40+ weapons; pistols, rifles, grenade launchers.

15 O.C.C.s and MOS skill packages for the 8 main branches of the ASC and the 7 Special Forces Divisions operating under the Tactical Corps.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™

Robotech® is getting hotter and hotter. It is the Number One Anime on Crackle, the Robotech® movie from Sony Pictures sounds like it is going to be become a reality, more Robotech® licensed products are appearing, and Palladium is gearing up toward the release of Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Wave Two and more Robotech® products. Ah, but the core game and expansion packs to get you started are available right now.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ is a fast-paced, tabletop combat game that captures the action and adventure of the Robotech® anime. Two or more players can engage in small squad skirmishes or scale up to massive battles. Relive the clashes of the First Robotech War, engage in stand-alone tactical games, or use the dynamic game pieces to enhance your Robotech® RPG experience. Or simply collect your favorite mecha from an expanding range of top-notch game pieces. Get yours now.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Convention Exclusives – now available to anyone

These dynamic pieces are available as a regular item in the Palladium store. They are powerful fun and only have 4-6 parts, so they are easy to put together. They look awesome on your shelf or in your game. Get yours while supplies last.